Hello, I'm Ah, church, it is always an honor to be given the opportunity to bring the word on the weekend.

And this series, as Pastor Michael was just saying, has just been incredible.

As I've sat out there and listened every single week, Pastor Jeff, as he's just been bringing such incredible word in this discipleship.

He brings a great word every week.

But I've just been sitting there.

You know that little emoji with the mind blow?

That's how I felt every single Saturday night when I'm here on Saturday nights going home.

So it's been a great time being out here.

So it's good to see you all.

And of course, all of you joining us online in our Upland, Westco, and Rancho campuses as well.

So we are still going to continue along on this discipleship series and we are going to be in the book of Luke.

So if you want to go ahead and open up your word, your Bible into Luke chapter 9, we will be there in just a minute.

And you know in the book of Luke in the first eight chapters, first half of the book, Luke is really setting things up for us to understand who is Jesus.

Who is he?

We get his birth story.

We get his story of when he was a boy at 12 years old.

We get his early ministry story.

We also get this verse, and I'll just read it to you.

You don't have to go there.

But this verse really helps where Luke really lets us know who Jesus is.

This is at Jesus' baptism.

And Luke writes this.

He says, when all the people were being baptized, Jesus was baptized too.

And as he was praying, heaven was opened and the Holy Spirit descended on him in bodily form like a dove.

and a voice came from heaven.

You are my son whom I love with you.

I am well pleased.

Luke makes it very clear that Jesus is part of the Godhead.

And in that particular passage, you see all three, you see the father, you hear the father, you don't see him, you hear the father, you see the spirit come down as a dove and you see the son, which is beautiful.

And so this is who Jesus is.

The second half of the book of Luke is all about what does it mean to be a...

follower of Jesus, to be a disciple.

And we are going to camp on that here this weekend.

And so in Luke chapter 9 verse 22, this is what it says.

It says, then he said to them all, this is Jesus speaking.

He says to them, whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me.

For whoever wants to save their life will lose it.

but whoever loses their life for me will save it.

What good is it for someone to gain the whole world and yet lose or forfeit their very self?

Those of you that are familiar with the Glendora area, maybe you've seen it, maybe you've even gone up there, but if you're like midtown and you look up on the mountain that's directly behind Glendora, right up on that ridge line up there, you'll see a cross.

You'll see a little white cross up there.

And that cross is known as the Garcia Cross.

And there used to be a Garcia Trail that burned down in the Colby Fire.

And my friend Steve actually built a new trail that comes out of Church of the Open Doors property up there off of Sierra Madre.

And you can climb up to this cross.

It's only a mile, but you're climbing 1,000 feet in that mile.

So it's a nice little workout to get up there.

And when you get up there, the view is absolutely incredible.

And so I love to go up there sometimes during the week and sometimes have my prayer time up at the cross.

And sometimes I'm up there praying for myself, but sometimes I love to just sit up there and pray for the valley.

I mean, at that particular view, you're looking out at Glendora, but like you can literally from there, see out to Catalina, you can see out to Orange County, you can see out to the San Bernardino mountains, but to pray over our communities.

And it's pretty cool metaphor to be praying for the communities through the cross right there.

It's really beautiful.

We love the cross, right?

I mean, the cross, we love it.

I mean, in fact, how many of you here tonight, not going to ask you, not going to embarrass you, but if you have a cross necklace on, just raise your hand.

Look at all you spiritual people.

Look at that.

It's awesome.

I think it's great.

Anybody have a cross on their shirt or an article of clothing?

People looking around like, do I have a cross on?

Maybe a few.

I don't know.

Now, this next one, we don't want to know where it is and we don't want to see it, but does anybody have a tattoo of a cross?

Look at the tats.

All right.

That's cool.

Why do we do this?

Because we love the cross.

We respect the cross.

We honor the cross.

Here's the reality though.

2,000 years ago, if somebody from 2,000 years ago saw you with a cross around your neck or a cross tattooed on your body, they would be shocked.

And here's why.

Because the cross was an instrument of execution.

And that execution was excruciating.

And it was horrific.

It was horrible.

I mean, let's put this modern day.

Imagine going out to coffee for someone.

I don't know what your coffee place is.

I know Pastor Jeff apparently likes to go to Clatch a lot.

I tend to do a lot of my work over at Classic Coffee downtown in Glendora.

But let's just say you're out to coffee wherever you go.

And you're out there with a friend.

And you notice a necklace.

And you're like, hey, hey, what's that around your neck?

And they're like, oh.

It's my electric chair.

Or maybe they're older school and they're like, oh, it's a guillotine.

And you're just like, whoa, like you're trying to get out of this coffee date as quickly as possible.

Because like, why are they wearing something like this around their neck?

You see the cross, it was an instrument of execution.

And of course we honor it and we know what it means to us.

Because when we wear it, it symbolizes to us and it reminds us of that.

that costly sacrifice that Jesus made for us, right?

And the freedom that you and I have because we've been set free from our sin.

And so we wear the cross, we wear it boldly, and we love it.

And that's awesome.

But the cross should also remind us of one other thing.

It should remind us of what is expected of us.

Not just what Jesus did on the cross, but what's expected of us.

What was it Jesus said in that passage I read?

He said, if you want to be his disciple, You need to deny yourself and pick up your cross.

What, at Easter?

You know, pick up your cross when you want something from God.

Pick up your cross when you're going to go to church on the weekend.

What does it say, friends?

Pick up our cross daily.

We are called to pick up our cross daily.

We are expected to carry our cross as disciples of Jesus.

Now, we know from Galatians 2.20 that we have been crucified with Christ.

But there is also a daily.

daily expectation of denying ourselves and following Jesus, a daily crucifying of our flesh, which symbolizes our selfish way of living as we continue to be transformed.

In fact, true disciples are constantly being transformed.

And we're going to talk about that.

I'm going to deep dive on that here tonight.

Transformation.

Also, known as metamorphosis, which metamorphosis is a word that means dramatic change in form and habits.

So what does it actually mean to be transformed?

So back in 2016, during my quiet times, and I was going through some stuff in my life, and the Lord was just really ministering to me through the Holy Spirit.

And I sensed the Lord tell me, Dawn, in this next season, I just, I'm putting you in a cocoon.

It was almost like the season of just confinement.

There was a lot of change that God was getting me ready for.

And I remember that image that I just sensed as I prayed.

And I started to think about it.

And I'm like, well, what actually really happens in a cocoon?

I mean, I remember my second grade science, right?

Little caterpillar crawls around eating a bunch of leaves and twigs.

And then somehow ends up spinning a little cocoon and gets inside of it.

Or it spins it around it.

Hangs off a tree for a week or two, however long that happens.

And out pops a cocoon.

It would be a moth.

We like to say a butterfly because they're prettier.

But the butterflies have chrysalises.

Moths have cocoons.

And I just thought about that and I thought, well, what actually, I mean, what actually happens inside that cocoon?

And so I did a little bit of study and my mind was blown at what took place.

Because you see what happens is when that caterpillar is inside the cocoon, it begins to release an enzyme.

And when that enzyme comes out, what it does is it literally starts to dissolve the body of the caterpillar.

Within the caterpillar though are these little tiny pockets of cells that have been kept in an immature state for the entire life of the caterpillar.

And now at this particular moment, when that enzyme is released, when the body is being dissolved, the dissolved body becomes the fuel for the little immature pieces that had never developed to now begin to develop.

And that's how it then grows into a butterfly.

And you can actually watch, they've got like time-lapse stuff on this now on YouTube.

It's pretty crazy to watch.

But it was also, as I sat there and read about this, I was like, metamorphosis, transformation, it is messy.

It is uncomfortable.

I mean, think about that poor caterpillar looking and seeing his legs going away.

Like, what am I going to do?

You know, all he knows is walking around, right?

But his life, who he was before, is going away.

And he's having to trust the process of who he is becoming.

Now, it's a beautiful picture for what transformation is like.

But like all illustrations, you can only apply it so much.

Because a caterpillar is one and done.

Goes in, comes out, the moth, the butterfly, whatever, it's done.

Our lives as followers of Jesus, we never arrive here on this side of eternity.

Our constant life as we walk on this planet is to continually being transformed.

We are transformed as Christians and followers of Jesus.

It's continual transformation.

And we are not the agents of that transformation.

In fact, here's what it says in the scriptures regarding what's happening inside of us.

In Galatians chapter 4, verse 19, we have the apostle Paul.

And he writes this, he says, my dear children, for whom I am again in the pains of childbirth until Christ is formed in you.

When we're going through transformation, what's happening is Christ is being formed in us.

We are becoming more and more like Jesus.

Now, the reality is, is that you and I cannot make ourselves more like Jesus.

It's something that has to happen to us.

Okay, we can't do it in our own strength.

We go through transformation.

In fact, it says in 2 Corinthians, this is Paul writing again, 3.18, and we all who with unveiled faces contemplate the Lord's glory are being transformed into his image with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.

It is an ongoing process in our life.

And my friends, it involves a whole lot of dying, a whole lot of dying to ourselves.

That's part of the deal, right?

Our part of the deal is what we are called to die to self and pick up our cross and follow Jesus.

But on the other side of this, as we go through it, it brings life.

It brings true life.

Christ is being formed in us.

And like I said earlier, we're not the agent of the change.

The Holy Spirit is the agent.

Pastor Jeff, the last two weeks has been unpacking for us the Holy Spirit and the gifts of the Spirit.

And it's the Holy Spirit that resides inside of you who is the agent of your transformation.

But we work with them.

In fact, we have a role to play.

So once again, Paul writes this in Philippians chapter two.

It says, therefore, my dear friends, as you have always obeyed, not only in my presence, but now much more in my absence, continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling.

For it is God who works in you to will and to act in order to fulfill his good purpose.

What that means is this.

We are called to work out what God, the Holy Spirit, has worked in.

We work out what he has worked in.

We need to be intentional.

The best way I know to explain this is like this.

If any of you who go to the gym remember your first time going to the gym, and the first time you go, you can feel incredibly overwhelmed.

There are all these different machines everywhere, all these different freeways.

You're like, I don't even know where to start.

and you might be walking in and you're not feeling very fit and you're seeing all these fit people and it could just be super intimidating but the reality is is that inside of your muscles is the capacity it's already worked in for you to become fit it's already there but you have to work it out what's been worked in all right so sometimes i go to the gym i go to la fitness i see yourself or not la fitness 24 hour and i see some of you there um and uh I sit in there and sometimes, now I don't ever see any of you doing this, but sometimes you get that random person who they're sitting on a piece of machinery, they ain't working out at all.

You know, they're looking at their phone, they're scrolling, they're taking selfies, right?

And they're like, but hey, I went to the gym, I showed up.

That's not showing up, that's taking up space, right?

I'm like, get off the machine.

I don't actually say this, but I'm thinking it, trying to be Christ-like, you know, smile.

But I want them off the machine because they're, what are they doing?

Why are they sitting there for so long?

And you see, when we approach our walk with Jesus, this discipleship with Jesus, showing up is not taking up space.

Showing up is engagement.

And the reality is just at the gym, a while back, maybe, I don't even know if it's been 10 years ago or not, but my left quad had atrophied due to an injury compared to my right.

And I was in PT and the doctor actually measured and it was like significantly less.

And I went to make sure to check to make sure everything was all right.

And I had the capacity for it to grow.

And so I had to go and I had to apply.

There was certain exercises I had to do, certain machines I need to use to bring out what was in there.

And so also for you and I, we have, God has put inside of us so much, but we are to partner with him.

We are to cooperate with him in bringing it out.

It's so important that we do that.

We've got to be intentional.

God's desire, his desire is for us to be all that he's called us to be and to do all that he's called us to do.

In that, this is that full and abundant life that Pastor Jeff talked about a couple of weeks ago.

When we are becoming who he's called us to be, doing what he's called us to do, abundant life is not about how much I own or all the big vacations I take or anything like that.

Abundant life is becoming more and more like Jesus as the Holy Spirit works in us.

And the whole purpose of it, as Pastor Jeff taught us, is for the purpose of evangelism.

Because as we are transformed, our light shines brighter and brighter in this dark world.

And the Lord uses us as incredible way.

We become the salt of the earth to go and to bring flavor into places where the flavor is gone and healing into places where healing is needed.

And so it's important that we are living that abundant life.

And God has set us up for victory.

But it's up to us whether or not we will participate in the process.

It's up to us.

See, Augustine said it this way.

God provides the wind, but man must raise the sail.

It's up to us.

So the apostle Peter, he said this, he wrote this in 2 Peter, and I'm going to read, stay with me on this.

It's going to be about seven verses, and then we're going to unpack these.

So follow along with me on this.

It says this, his divine power, which is God's divine power, has given us everything we need for a godly life through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness.

Through these, he has given us his very great and precious promises.

so that through them you may participate in the divine nature, having escaped the corruption in the world caused by evil desires.

For this very reason, make every effort.

If I had my Bible in front of me, I'd be underlining the make every effort right now.

To add to your faith goodness, and to goodness knowledge, and to knowledge self-control, and to self-control perseverance, and to perseverance godliness.

and to godliness, mutual affection, and to mutual affection, love.

For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ.

But whoever does not have them is nearsighted and blind, forgetting that they have been cleansed from their past sins.

Therefore, my brothers and sisters, make every effort to confirm your calling and election.

Let's unpack this for a moment.

It opened up by saying this.

He has given us everything we need to be godly.

You have everything you need to be godly.

Everything.

You're not lacking anything.

You can live a godly life.

Now you might be sitting there going, no, no, no, no, no, no.

I don't think I can.

But the reality is, is you can, because God is not a respecter of persons.

He has put into every single one of us everything we need.

All the precious promises are for us.

So I remember, this was years ago now, I was driving my car, and I had my oldest nieces with me.

And I'd had the car for about three years.

And my oldest niece, her name's Brooke, she was playing with the navigation system.

And she began to get it to do things I never had any idea that it could do.

Like, she was doing all these, and I look at her, and I'm like, I had no idea.

Like I had no idea that it would do that.

And here it was, I had owned the car, this was my navigation system, but I was clueless about what it was I actually had in my hands.

Why?

Because I had never made any effort to learn it.

Never.

It's the same thing with computers with me.

I go to some IT person, they start showing me all the stuff my computer can do, and I'm just like, blown away.

Why?

Because I've never made any effort to get it to do anything more, like to really understand what else it can do.

How often have I limited my life because I didn't understand or did not intentionally pursue knowledge of how to use what was actually in my hands?

How about us spiritually?

Do we recognize and know what we actually have access to?

The same power that raised Jesus Christ from the dead lives inside of you.

We know that out of Romans 8, 11, the same power.

And that power will bring you breakthrough.

It'll bring you transformation.

It's a power that's alive inside of you.

Now you might be like, no, but I can't, I can't be godly like Pastor Michael, right?

I can't be godly like whoever it is.

Yes, you can.

Yes, you can.

God doesn't love Pastor Michael or me or he doesn't love us any more than he loves you.

And you have everything you need through the knowledge of Jesus.

So for this reason, which is how the passage goes on to say, well, what reason?

The reason that you have a new birth in Christ, that you have the precious promises, that you have divine power, you have everything you need for godly life.

We need to make every effort.

We need to be intentional about the development of that incredible list of moral values I just read about.

We're to apply them with all diligence.

Godly character does not come from passivity.

We have a role to play in our transformation.

Now with that list, in reading it, you might think, well, we probably just work on one at a time.

Once I got one down, then I moved to the next.

So you might be like, well, you know what, Dawn, I'm still working on the goodness piece.

So since I haven't gotten past that yet, I haven't yet gotten to self-control.

That's why these areas are out of control in my life.

But actually, these are all to be being developed in our life simultaneously.

All, I don't know if there was eight or nine of them, however many there were, all.

These are virtues that should be found in a healthy Christian life.

We never arrive.

So no matter how long you've been a Christian, there's always more to go.

There's always more to becoming like Christ.

Remember, in fact, I have found and I've heard others have said the same thing, that the more I grow in my faith, the more I transform, the more I become like Christ, the more I realize I have even farther to go to become like Christ.

It humbles us.

Now, you might hear that and think, oh my gosh.

You mean like never arriving?

Never arriving somewhere sort of sounds like an old Twilight Zone episode.

Like, you know, if you've ever watched the Twilight Zone marathons, like what the heck?

What do you mean I never arrive?

Or like being eight years old, my grandfather used to take us on vacations where we traveled across the country by car in his truck, right?

And like when you're in Nebraska, it's like going through Nebraska, it's a very flat state.

What do you mean never arrive?

It sort of can almost feel dismal, but it's not that at all.

You see, as Christ is continuing to be formed in us.

We then mature in our faith, and then we're even more and more effective in building the kingdom of God.

Because we're continuing to grow.

It's actually a very beautiful journey.

As we experience greater and greater levels of freedom in Christ, we then daily carry our cross, daily crucify the flesh.

We become more and more who we were always intended to be.

It's powerful.

It's an incredible way of living.

It's an adventure.

I love adventure.

It's an adventure.

You never know where he's going to take you next as you're applying.

It's amazing.

And so Paul says in 1 Corinthians, he says, therefore, he goes into strict training.

This is what it says, 1 Corinthians 9, 24.

Do you not know that in a race, all the runners run, but only one gets the prize?

Run in such a way as to get the prize.

Stop there just for a second.

I love the Olympics.

I don't know.

Probably a lot of you do as well.

I love.

any part of the Olympics, but I really love track and field.

And I love it when they're doing the 100 meter or the four by 100.

And when they get a camera on those athletes and when that gun goes off and when you, when you can see through the camera lens, if they have the right view of it, like if you could see the intensity in the eyes of those sprinters and just how their body is moving and how they're running and how they stay in their lane, it's incredible.

Their focus is amazing.

Paul is talking about something like that.

He says, in our Christian walk, don't you know, first of all, if you just look at people who are out on a run, like on a race in the Olympics, they run as if to get a prize, which is what we are called to do as well, where we would be so intense in making sure that we are so in our lane, so focused, so moving forward, just like a runner would who's running a race.

Verse 25, everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training.

They do it to get a crown that will not last.

But we do it to get a crown that will last forever.

Stop there for a second.

In the Olympics back in those days, these people would go into the strict training and they'd get a wreath.

They'd get a wreath to wear around the head, right?

I mean, our athletes at least get something a little better, gold medal, that's pretty cool, right?

But it's not as cool as what you and I are competing for.

Because what you and I have, we get a crown that will last forever.

Do we realize that?

I mean, think about that for a second.

The eternity with the Lord and being able to receive our reward based on how we live down here as his disciples is amazing.

We have something to fight for.

We have something to go after.

We have something to train for.

It's incredible.

Therefore, Paul says, I do not run like someone running aimlessly.

I do not fight like a boxer beating the air.

No, I strike a blow to my body.

Now, he's not talking about literally.

beating his body okay he's talking about discipline and make it my slave so that after I have preached to others I myself will not be disqualified for the prize so I want to take us somewhere and actually revisit something that I was able to bring up the last time I spoke back in November and that's back to the word I just mentioned there that Paul was talking about which is discipline And if you remember, if you happen to be here the weekend, I talked on fasting.

You might have tried to block it out because you didn't want to fast.

All right.

But if you remember, we talked about the path of disciplined grace.

Path of disciplined grace.

And the path of disciplined grace, it's grace because it's free.

It's like you're getting something you didn't deserve, but it's discipline because there is something for you and I to do.

And discipline brings freedom.

Discipline is not a bad word.

It's a great word.

When we live a disciplined life, we experience freedom.

And the disciplines, the spiritual disciplines, provide a space that liberate us from self-interest and from fear.

They're not for the, you know, the disciplines are not simply for the super spiritual people, okay?

They're for ordinary people, like you and I.

People who work nine-to-fives.

People who raise families.

People who eat.

at La Tolteca.

You know, people who crave donut man.

All right.

It's only a mile from my house, man.

Sometimes you can smell it.

Anyway, or the most recent addition to local delicacies and temptations for those of us who crave handles and handles ice cream.

I see a lot of you at handles whenever I'm there.

I'm either being served by somebody from the church or I run into someone there, whatever it is.

The disciplines are for regular everyday followers of Jesus.

The disciplines are not joy killers, but they're joy creators.

And in teaching us to say no to some things, they leave us with a much greater yes to what brings life.

So just remember, as we look at this, the path itself, when you're on that path of disciplined grace, the path itself does not produce the change.

It places us where the change occurs.

When we walk on the path, we are encountering the power of the Holy Spirit, who then goes to work and he does the transformation of us.

The Holy Spirit forms Christ in us.

We don't make ourselves more like Jesus.

The Holy Spirit does that.

Remember, Pastor Jeff was talking.

He talks about how right out of John chapter 15, Jesus is the vine, we are the branches.

We abide in him.

We are called to work out what he has worked in.

We cooperate with him.

He leads, we follow.

This is what it means to pick up our cross daily.

We cooperate.

So in the book that I mentioned back in November, A Celebration of Discipline, Richard Foster, the author, mentions 12 disciplines, spiritual disciplines.

Now, these disciplines that he lists are not necessarily exhaustive.

And honestly, we don't have time today to go into each one of them.

Each one of them could be a teaching series.

And I believe we put the list of what Richard Foster had.

We put those actually into the app so you can look at those.

But I do want to highlight a handful of them.

And as we do, we are going to get...

crazy practical, all right?

Really give you some handles on how do you become intentional in working out your salvation with fear and trembling.

And so I also want to say, if you're a new Christian, I'm going to highlight the ones, a couple of these disciplines that would be the best ones maybe for you to jump right into.

Because sometimes when you're new to following Jesus and you walk into church, it can feel a little overwhelming, like somebody's first time at the gym.

You're just like, whoa, wait, where do I even start?

So let me just give you, I'll make sure to highlight ones like, hey, new follower of Jesus, this is one you want to practice.

Now, for those of you that have been around for a little while, like myself, been following Jesus, I want to speak to all of us and say, I'm going to mention some others that maybe you've never tried these disciplines before.

Maybe you've never practiced them.

And I hope you get some holy curiosity where you go, you know what?

Maybe just choose one of them.

They're like, you know what?

I want to, I want to begin to put that practice into my life.

And see what the Holy Spirit does in that space in bringing even deeper transformation inside of you.

So with that, let's take a look at some of the first ones there.

This first one I won't say a lot about.

Pastor Jeff just talked about.

And this is the discipline of prayer.

And if you're a new believer, this is one you want to be practicing.

Prayer is the most central discipline because it ushers us into communion with the Father.

We think about this.

Like, you ever go out in the desert?

and see the expanse of the sky, not just how massive it is, and realize just how big our God is.

It's incredible.

And we get to commune with him.

He's so massive and yet so present to us.

And prayer is your lifeline to him.

Prayer is you talking with him.

Now you might be like, but Dawn, I don't know how to pray.

Sometimes I talk with people who've been followers of Jesus for a while, and they're also nervous to even pray in front of others as if they would do it wrong.

You're not going to pray wrong.

Just pray.

have a conversation.

It's just talking to God and being able to share with him what's going on.

But prayer is also listening.

But you can learn, the disciples asked Jesus, how do we pray?

Look up the Lord's prayer.

It's an incredible model for you on that.

But as new disciples, that is a discipline you want to grab onto.

This next one I've combined two, and I want to camp here for a little while.

And that is study and meditation.

Study and meditation.

In some schools, you'll they'll split those apart as disciplines, but we're, for the sake of time and just illustration, we're going to do them together tonight.

Now, when we study...

It transforms, studying transforms our mind as we learn the word of God and how to correctly interpret it.

When you study scripture, you're doing like an inductive Bible study.

You're finding out like really going deep.

That's what study talks about, like going deep.

Who's the author?

What's the context?

Who is he writing to?

What are the verses around it to help give context to what it actually means?

You're going deep, all right?

But meditation, Then after you know the context and you have a good grip of it, meditation is listening to scripture, reflecting on scripture, rehearsing scripture.

In other words, how can I actually live this out in my life?

And ruminating on scripture.

Meditation is not Eastern meditation that teaches an emptying of the mind.

Christian meditation is a filling of the mind with the word of God.

It's an important discipline to practice.

And so, So studying addresses what it means, the scripture means.

Meditation is how do I apply it?

The word teaches us, we hear in James, that we are called to be doers of the word.

We're called to put the word to work in our life.

Now, the word is the primary way that God speaks to us.

If you're like, I don't know, I'm not really hearing God.

The primary way we hear God is right here, right here in this word.

In fact, in the word, the Lord wants to speak to us.

God wants to speak to us daily.

While I'm not into religious legalism at all, I do highly encourage a daily personal reading of the word as a discipline.

Because as you get the word inside of you, the Bible talks about the psalmist writes, thy, your word have I hid in my heart that I might not sin against you.

Struggling with sin, are you getting word in you?

Because the word's going to help you.

It's going to transform you to break the bondages of the sinful pattern that you're struggling with.

The word brings life.

The word's powerful.

Now, sometimes though, we're like, yeah, but Dawn, I just.

I just don't, I don't know.

I just don't know where to read.

I don't, I don't know how to pray or how to read the word.

I can't read the Bible on my own.

And so what we do is we come to church each week and Pastor Jeff is delivering the word and it's awesome.

We get some good word.

The word is like bread for our soul.

All right.

And so he's delivering the word and we're sitting out there.

I'm right out there with you taking notes, underlining things in my Bible.

It's like a nice baguette.

He's just handing out spiritual baguette for our soul, right?

And it's awesome.

This is last week's because that's why it's Eden.

All right.

And so that was good.

Pastor Jeff's message last week on the gifts of the spirit.

It was powerful.

Right.

And so we take that word and we and we eat it.

We leave church and we're hanging out out there like, man, that was good.

And we're all talking about how good it was.

And we're full.

That's awesome.

Then we go into our week and we don't pick it up for ourselves because we were like, whatever.

Things happen.

Life happens.

And it gets to be Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and we're still trying to live off the word we got on Sunday or Saturday night.

And it was a good word.

It was a fresh word.

But God's like, I want to give you something fresh every single day.

But we're sitting there and it's Wednesday, Thursday, Friday.

We haven't cracked this up.

And we're still trying to eat the word, you know, that, wait, what was said on Sunday?

What was that?

We're still trying.

And we're just sort of trying to, because it's stale, right?

There's still word.

This was good.

Now, is it still, is it still edible?

I mean, you could, you could like put it in your mouth and just, I don't know, gum it for a while.

And, and, and it, you know, it's still, it still has nutrients, right?

But the reality is that this word was given to you last Saturday night, and you've been trying to live on this all week.

And the Lord's like, no, no, no.

You see, if you just come to me every single day and get into the word, I'm going to give you some fresh bread.

All right.

Something soft, something good.

He has something to say to you on a daily basis.

All right?

We don't want to be eating stale stuff, you know?

So we need to go to his word.

We're like, okay, but then how?

How do I make it applicable to my life?

I've got crumbs everywhere.

This is going to be fun to clean up all weekend.

Anyway, I want to give you five questions you can ask as you are getting into the word.

I would write these down.

If you struggle with the word of God, I would say go.

I like to take people first to the book of Luke.

Out of all the gospels, I would read a gospel, but I like Luke because then you can go right into action.

There's a lot of action in action.

I like action.

So, but Luke, then we start to read about the life of Jesus.

Try to do maybe, I don't know, do a chapter a day, whatever.

Go your pace.

It's not about how much, but here's five questions you can ask so that you can take it deeper inside.

First of all, is there a promise to claim?

Is there a promise to claim as you're reading this?

Remember, all the precious promises are for all of us.

Is there a promise there you need to know about?

Because once you know you have a promise, it gives you, it builds your faith, friends.

It'll build you up.

Second, is there a sin to confess?

The word is like, it goes in and it shows us the different things inside of us that's off.

Remember, we're on a journey of transformation.

And the word will help to transform us.

And it'll point out different areas that we need to work on.

Is there a sin to confess?

The third one, is there a command to obey?

Is there a command?

So as you're listening and you're reading and Jesus is saying something and he's whatever that might be in the Holy Spirit will go through the word and speak directly to your heart, to your situation.

And you'll know if there's a command to obey.

Number four, is there an example to follow?

Scripture talks about how we have all these different people who have gone before us.

It says this in Hebrews, who have inherited the promises.

And they're examples to us of what it looks like to walk by faith and patience.

And so we have all these examples that we can get.

We can find, see what Jesus did or what Peter did or what John did.

Or you go to any of the other stories.

And then, wow, there's an example for you to follow.

Or the fifth question, is there an encouragement to receive?

Something that will build your soul up where you've like, man, in Psalms, it says, why so downcast, oh my soul, right?

Well, sometimes you go to the scripture then and your downcast soul is going to find a piece of encouragement to hang on to.

If you will use those five questions as you go in, you're going to start to hear God speak to you in powerful ways.

You can do the old, you can look this up.

We don't have time to go into it right now, but you can find soap, an acronym soap, not like wash your body soap, but an acronym soap for Bible study and use that in your daily time.

And what I love is A always talks about application.

At that point, it's like, okay, so you read it.

What are you going to do today based on what you read?

And then go do it.

Put the word to work in your life.

Watch your life transform.

It's powerful.

So those five questions.

All right, the next discipline, we're not going to unpack this much because I preached on it in November, is fasting.

I'm bringing it back up though.

Fasting, my friends.

Oh, by the way, if you're new a believer, you should be doing the study.

You should do the prayer.

And you should also jump into study and meditation.

All right.

Start reading your word in the book of Luke.

All right.

Fasting.

Fasting is the least practiced discipline out of all of them, especially in our day and age.

There's a whole message on it in November if you want to hear more on that.

But it's basically abstaining from food for spiritual purposes to grow closer to Jesus.

And one of the key things in fasting and how it works in transformation is it reveals what controls us.

And then we can bring that to Jesus.

All right, this next two I put together.

And this is one back in 2016, the Lord's begun to speak deeply into my life on.

And that's practicing silence and solitude.

Silence and solitude.

Stillness could be thrown in there as well.

Three S's.

See, we keep our world loud and busy and we often fear quietness and aloneness.

We're afraid sometimes to slow it down.

The reality is, is what we're doing is we're often self-medicating because there's different things inside of us that we don't want to hear.

We don't want to have awareness around.

So as long as I stay busy, then maybe myself, where I feel maybe, I don't know, maybe you're challenged with your self-image or something like that.

But if I stay busy, I must be important.

Or if I keep my world loud, then I don't have to hear the cry of my heart where I'm hurting or different things that are going on inside of us.

And so we will stay loud.

We will stay busy.

But the reality is, is that silence and stillness as disciplines, they produce space.

to hear God and break strongholds that are in our lives.

Strongholds of like people pleasing, strongholds of performance-based living, which is what my issue was back in 2016.

I had identified with the, I am what I do.

And I was in ministry, full-time ministry.

I am what I do.

And I didn't realize how much my identity had gotten caught up in that.

And I had to learn how to become still.

That's why God put me in a cocoon for a season so that I could learn who I truly was, who God was truly calling me to be.

and not have my identity so caught up in what I was, how I was performing, which was just like a hamster wheel after a while.

You just get exhausted when your identity is caught up in performance.

But it was silence and solitude, that space where the Holy Spirit met me and brought breakthrough in my own life.

Silence and solitude strips us of structures that we put around ourselves to self-medicate or for protection.

And these structures are barriers to relationships.

So you might be like, well, if I sit in silence, what am I supposed to do?

or solitude.

Well, this is a great place to meditate on his word, to receive his love, to get honest about what's going on inside.

I was seeing a therapist for a while and she introduced me to the feelings wheel because I had no awareness around how I, like my own emotions back in those days.

And then when I got that feelings wheel, if you've never seen that, you should Google it, the feelings wheel.

Who knew there were so many feelings?

If you look it up, there's a lot of them, but then when you can get in touch with that.

And then you bring that before the Lord.

The fact that I was staying so busy and doing all of that, I was actually missing incredible times with my Savior of unpacking, processing, and receiving healing.

Now.

How do you start on something like that?

Well, I love, I was reading Emotionally Healthy Spirituality and the author of that book has a devotional and he said, start with two minutes a day, which sounds so kindergarten-ish, you know, two minutes, but reality, that was hard to be silent and quiet without my mind going all over the place for two minutes.

There's no shame in how much the time is, even if you start with two minutes.

I would literally set my watch or my phone with a timer.

And in there, and if my mind drifted, you don't beat yourself up if your mind drifts.

Just gently draw your mind back to the Lord and just be present with him and watch and see what he does.

Let me hit a couple of these again real quickly.

Simplicity, we're just gonna hit these real fast here.

Simplicity, all my friends, this is both inward and outward, right?

So many times we have so much stuff either going on in our life, going on in our heads, things we own that just get in the way.

Simplicity is about seeking God's kingdom and righteousness first and foremost.

It's keeping our priorities straight and not keeping into materialism.

It's choosing to manage our time, money, talents, and possessions toward what matters most.

How can we simplify our lives?

Next one, service.

This is using the gifts the Holy Spirit has given you that Pastor Jeff talked about last week to build up the body of Christ.

As a new believer, you can step in and start serving.

It's a great way to learn and to grow.

And it's powerful because then it helps us.

It breaks down the self-centered ego that we realize that life is not all about me.

It's actually all about Jesus.

And I'm partnering with him to build his church.

It's a beautiful thing to serve.

The last one I'll mention is worship.

This is a corporate discipline.

You come to church, but it's not to simply be a spectator.

It's not to take up space, but it's actually to engage.

And in the engagement, there is the receiving of the word.

But there's also the time when we are worshiping through song.

And it's entering in, fully being present, interactive.

Not back in the back, just sort of watching.

You can be in the back, by the way.

I love all you people in the back.

That was nothing personal by any means there.

But just really being where you are present with him.

So when we lift our hands, we lift our hands, first of all, to surrender everything to him.

We also lift our hands in adoration.

We participate in worship as a body of believers here as a church.

It is powerful.

It's life transforming.

So when we are regularly walking this path of disciplined grace, carrying our cross daily, working out what he has worked in, understanding that we have everything we need for godliness because it was given to us, making every effort on our part to be growing in the attributes that we talked about earlier.

We will live an effective and productive life for the kingdom.

For in other words, once we agree to follow Jesus, we make a covenant to do three things.

Real quickly here, we will have set a new priority.

We live ultimately for Jesus's purposes, not our own.

Jesus is first.

He is foremost.

Second, we will have discovered our true identity.

We find our identity and our meaning in Jesus, not in the idols of this world or what the world tells us or anything like that.

Our identity is, I am a disciple of Jesus.

And third, we will be living out a new mercy.

We show mercy and grace to other people around us.

This is when we get transformed and we start to even be surprised with ourselves.

Like, wow, I was actually really kind to that person.

I actually was loving in that situation.

Because Christ has been formed in us.

So we become tender towards others.

So let me just close with this question.

How are you being intentional in cooperating with the Holy Spirit on your continued transformation?

How are you being intentional?

Don't stop short, friends.

Don't give up.

Don't allow the worries and cares and temptations of this world to take your eyes off the prize.

But let's be like Paul, closing scripture.

He says this, not that I have already obtained all this or have already arrived at my goal, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me.

Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it, but one thing I do, forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on.

toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.

Let's press on.

Let's pray.

Lord Jesus, I pray for us, God, tonight in this place.

Help us to press on, Lord.

God, help us, Lord, in the situations we find ourselves in.

Lord, may we be intentional, Lord, with our own development.

Intentional to work and to cooperate with what you want to do in our lives.

May we keep growing closer and closer to you, more and more like you, Father, that we might be shining brightly, God, as lights in this very, very dark world.

So God, we thank you for this.

In Jesus' name, amen.

We hope you enjoyed today's message.

If you want to know more about what it's like to be a Christ follower, I want to encourage you to go to oneandall.church.com to get more information, as well as to reach out to us to walk alongside you in this step.

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We hope you have a great rest of your week, and we'll end as we always do with one hope, one life in Christ.